Sunday, November 6, 2011

Concept ships' weekly header #50... John Harris!

Concept ships' weekly header #50... John Harris!: Kind of hard to believe that I've done fifty headers and how much this blog has changed since its inception.
There were a few artists that I thought of representing for this milestone but John Harris is undoubtedly one of the most skilled traditional science fiction illustrators on this planet. Thanks John and thanks to all of you for checking out conceptships ... Here is to fifty more headers!






















Keywords: concept spaceship science fiction tor book cover traditional media illustrations by renowned artist john harris born in London july 29th 1948 began painting at 14 and entered Luton College of Art at 16 entered the fine art course at exeter in 1967 to study painting graduated from there in 1970 tor books cover

The Secret World Concept Art #1

The Secret World Concept Art #1: Since Funcom just published a few of my concepts for our game, The Secret World, I might as well throw them in here too.
There's not much I can say about them except for that they're relatively old.
If you haven't already, do drop by the game's website for more info on the game, more concept art, new screenshots and a forum - which always is a lot of fun to read.





Shevonne: Daily Inspiration #293

Shevonne: Daily Inspiration #293:

Art Out Loud 6: Demos with James Gurney, Charles Vess, Sam Weber, Donato, and Greg Manchess

Art Out Loud 6: Demos with James Gurney, Charles Vess, Sam Weber, Donato, and Greg Manchess:
It's been too long since the last Art Out Loud painting demo, making us doubly excited to announce Art Out Loud 6.

Five artists will be painting and answering questions simultaneously within the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame gallery. If you get there early, the Spectrum exhibit will be on display in the main gallery from noon - 4:00.

The line up is awesome with a great array of painting styles. These guys are not just the top artists in the field but they are also incredibly giving and eager to share what they have earned over the years. Stop by and bug them with all the questions you can think of.

James Gurney
Sam Weber
Charles Vess
Donato Giancola
Greg Manchess

Art Out Loud 6
Saturday September 12th
1:00 -- 5:00pm
Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street, NY NY
$10 students, $20 members, $25 non-members
Refreshments included
RSVP kevin@societyillustrators.org / 212 838 2560

Warning: Space is very limited and tickets are cheap. Buy tickets in advance, all previous Art Out Louds have sold out.

[Write-up of previous Art Out Loud: Jim Bennet, Gary Kelley, and Greg Manchess]

Mitchell's Provedores: Unprovedorable

Mitchell's Provedores: Unprovedorable:
If you have to be pedantile, you could argue that this isn't Photoshop, so it doesn't belong here, or, that it's a fake and it is too well done and still doesn't belong here. Thank goodness no one who reads this blog is a stickler for this sort if thing!

Thanks to Gyüdi!

Insect Vehicles, Part 1

Insect Vehicles, Part 1: A few weeks ago, we took a brief look at a vehicle based on a butterfly design (link), but I thought it would be fun to explore the topic of flying insect-based vehicles a little more.

Throughout the history of transportation design, engineers have looked to nature for design analogs: fish for ships, tortoises for armored vehicles, and birds for aircraft. From the time of Leonardo da Vinci onward, many of the concepts for ornithopters were based on birds. Today many of the new semi-autonomous spy drones come from the study of insects.

The dragonfly is an ancient natural design, and it’s a powerful and agile flier. The two sets of wings beat out of phase with each other, making for a smooth ride. Each wingbeat is controlled by a separate nerve impulse, unlike flies and bees, whose wingbeats depend on a pulsating vibration of the upper plates of the thorax.

Recent high speed photography has revealed the secret of how insects fly. They take advantage of minature vortexes in the air to get extra lift—you can feel this effect by moving your hands in “wingbeats” underwater. But in an air medium, insect designs only work at a small scale, for the physics changes as you scale everything up.

This ornithopter maquette is from Dinotopia: The World Beneath. It’s based on the extinct dragonfly Meganeura, with some steampunk elements. I built the maquette with a pine fuselage and cardboard wings, which were mounted over armature wire, much like I did with the Utopiales Lepidopter, so that I could pose them at any angle.
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Photo by Robert Seber: link. (Canon 30D, 300mm IS ISO 1600, 1/1600, f/8)
Building the Utopiales maquette, link.

Skimmer Chassis

Skimmer Chassis: Yesterday Eric Colquhoun of Toronto asked to see the sketch I was doing in the previous post.

I should explain that I’m writing and illustrating an article on concept art for Imagine FX magazine, and I thought I'd give you a sneak peak. You'll definitely want to pick up a copy when it comes out in a few months. I’ll be sharing 25 tips showing how to design a “lived-in” future—a science fiction universe with a believable past.


One of the tips deals with vehicle design. We’ve all seen plenty of renderings of sleek, new vehicles, such as this ground effect skimmer. But how often do you see the rusty hulk of a futuristic vehicle?

I thought it would be a cool exercise to take this skimmer about forty years forward in time and rip off the outer body, leaving only the chassis and the fore and aft stabilizers.

As I sat on the sidewalk sipping my BJ Joe, I stared at the real Blazer chassis and imagined discovering this hulk in the desert, with the antigravity generator still working. Even though it’s rusted out and dented and stripped down, it’s still hovering a foot or so off the ground.

Jeanette didn’t want to draw an old chassis, so she used the 90 degree rule and faced across the street. She drew the scene in ballpoint and watercolor, incorporating a construction worker that she had drawn earlier in the day.
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Thanks to Kevin, the mechanic at Bob's Automotive for your helpful advice on chassis design, and thanks,Eric!

Insect Vehicles, Part 2

Insect Vehicles, Part 2: Beetles in flight are as amazing as butterflies or dragonflies. They have to lift their rigid wing covers and position them forward of the flapping wings.

The sketches below are of some insect-based aliens for a science fiction universe with sentient flying robots. I looked through lots of photos of insects, trying to dream up different ways to use the body plan of a beetle or a fly as a starting point.

A vehicle would require many of the same functional elements as a natural creature, namely: optical sensors, landing gear, external armor, wings and wing covers, fuel intake tubes, and offensive and defensive weapons systems.
The design assumption we’ve had until recently is that the manufacturing process would lead to artificial beings with an industrial geometry of straight lines and circles.
But recent advances in computer-aided design and manufacturing, and even computer-aided evolution suggests that vehicles of this kind might begin to mimic the organic lines and surfaces of real insects, like the longhorn beetle Callipogon armillatus, which is a marvel of natural engineering.


An entymologist friend gave me this amazing 5-inch-long specimen, which I love to study when I’m trying to imagine new kinds of vehicles. To learn about exoskeleton engineering, I also gather up parts from crabs and lobsters that wash up on the beach.

Image of pine beetle in flight from the NSF, link.

art of John Carpenter’s “Ghosts of Mars” day one

art of John Carpenter’s “Ghosts of Mars” day one:

Well, here is a mish mash favorite, I didn’t think I had all this on the computer but found it in a frantic “what to post” search…the images are soft and the exposures aren’t sharp, but this was done in the days when I didn’t have a scanner so I had to take pictures of the original art taped to the wall!!!! HAAA, the old days of my computer illiteracy…not much more advanced now either!!! HAAA! Anyway, after DS9 and Geppetto there was a long dry spell in movie production, and I discovered a website called Production Weekly. It’s a site that lists all productions that are getting ready to start. Some never do and others just take longer to get going, but at least you know what’s out there.

It was early 2000 and I came across the listing for a new John Carpenter Sci Fi/Horror movie called “Ghosts of Mars”. JOHN CARPENTER!!! Holy Cow!! I called and broke every rule to get through to the Production Designer on this one, and I was so glad that they brought me on!!! Bill Elliot was my boss, and we worked out of the Culver Studios in Culver City. The crux of the job was architecture and a whole load of props. What you see here on day one is the establishing look of a Martian mining community. The buildings were to have the look that they were dropped from a mold and have a gritty adobe type finish. John’s point on the designs of things was distinguishing different places by the shadows they cast. After showing him many renderings of various buildings, this was kind of the conclusion I came up with in how I would draw each structure. Lot’s of fun drawings for today, and it was a blast to work with one of my all time favorite directors. So with that, enjoy day one!

exterior sketch

exterior sketch

and on the set in New Mexico

and on the set in New Mexico

structure 2

structure 2

service garage

service garage

pump house

pump house

fueling and chemical station

fueling and chemical station

exterior to the reactor building

exterior to the reactor building

interior to the reactor room

interior to the reactor room

main airlock to the prison complex

main airlock to the prison complex

and a variety of patch art

and a variety of patch art